The document discusses how a media product follows conventions of the dramedy genre. It focuses on one main character throughout with characters that challenge stereotypes. Small problems build to a climax and are resolved. The soundtrack is happy but also fits dramatic moments. Love Actually and Juno are examples that conform to these conventions. The media product also focuses on two non-stereotypical "hipster" characters that meet unexpectedly, and includes minimal dialogue to advance the plot subtly without distraction. The music is upbeat but relaxed, and titles are subtle but noticeable, conforming to dramedy conventions.

1. In what ways does your media
product use, develop or challenge
forms and conventions of real
media products?
Question 1

2. • Our title sequence falls within the ‘dramedy’ genre, the conventions that
similar genres follow are:
• Focusing the piece around one main character and following the life of that
character throughout the film
• The character focused on does not follow the stereotypical conventions
• The titles are subtle and do not distract the audience from the rest of the
film
• The film has small problems throughout which then build to a climax but is
soon resolved
• The soundtrack will suit the genre by being happy and upbeat, but at times
fitting in with the climax
Conventions of the dramedy genre:

3. • Two films which follow the conventions of the dramedy genre are ‘Love
Actually’ and ‘Juno’. Both of which focus on one main character throughout
and have characters which do not conform to the stereotypes.
• As you can see Love Actually conforms to the dramedy genre. There are
elements of the genre where the title sequence shows the airport scene (as
shown in bottom right) which is emotional for the audience and the titles
in the background fit accordingly with colour, transition and size.
• In Juno the main character does not fit to the normal stereotypical girl. In
fact Juno is complete opposite (as shown in the bottom left); with little
care for appearance, friendship group and status. This follows the
conventions of the dramedy genre as Juno’s character expresses values
which contrast with the norm.

4. Our Characters
• We believe that it is clear that our characters conform to the dramedy
genre as neither fit the stereotypical male and female characters. We
decided to fit our characters within the ‘hipster’ category, this again
shows evidence that they do not conform to stereotypes. Almost like
Juno, out characters aren’t worried about fitting in with the crowd or
having a popular friendship group. Our title sequence follows two
characters in a parallel storyline where both waking up routines
mirror one another and at the end, the two characters meet. These
features also comply to the dramedy genre.

5. Dialogue
• Throughout our sequence we used little dialogue; when we did use
any, it was kept to a bare minimum. We believe this allows our
audience to follow the storyline easily and clearly. This does conflicts
the conventions slightly as there is little dialogue, but all of the
speech used does serve a responsible purpose.
• The scenes where we used dialogue are as follows:
• The father shouting at the boy to get up
• The exchange between the mother and daughter and
when the girl shouts at the dog for having her coat.

6. • At the end of our piece we decided to add a dramatic event, this
complies with the dramedy conventions. The part where the two
characters meet at the end can be seen as a bit of a shock for the
audience as at the beginning of the piece, it wasn’t clear what was
going to happen. To make this scene particularly dramatic, as a
group, we decided to include a slow motion transition as well as a few
seconds where the characters freeze. We believe this payed off really
well as the audience will have a greater understanding that the
characters are also surprised themselves to meet one another.

7. Titles
• To follow the dramedy conventions, we decided that the titles should
be subtle but also easy to read and noticeable. Out titles are white
which conveys the subtle element to them; but are in a trendy font
which allows our audience to take notice to them but not to distract
them from the sequence. The titles aren’t kept on the screen for long
periods of time, some fade in and out, whereas other roll on and off
of the screen; meaning they are only on the screen for a maximum of
a few seconds.

8. Music
• The soundtrack that we decided to use is called ‘How About It’; it is
upbeat, happy and fits into the elements of the film. It includes
relaxing instruments such as guitar, drums and piano which helps set
the atmosphere of the sequence and represents to our audience that
the film is very laid back and easy going. Our soundtrack is very
closely fitting to the conventions of the dramedy genre.

9. • I believe that we followed the conventions closely and there were
only a few scenes in our film which conflicted the conventions; this
was simply done to make our piece unique and to leave a memorable
impact on our audience.
Another aspect which doesn’t follow the conventions is the parallel
storyline which focuses on the two characters closely; instead of the
normal way conventions normally follow which is focusing on only one
main character throughout.